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Justice RIDES AGAIN!!!

Gerald sat on the edge of the road, eyes streaming and still chuckling. As the weirdly mean punk girl dragged the fungus blanketed deer and what little remained of Mr. Mushroom away, the tears began to slow and he noticed again that he was hot. His skin was oozing all over trying to cool off, and it was soaking through his sweatshirt now, staining it a pale yellowish tint. He stripped it off. The hell with it. If you can't be yourself in wonderland, he thought,who even are you?

No more hiding.

He rolled the sweatshirt up, careful not to lose his earbuds or the bit of Mr. Mushroom's head, and stuck the roll through the straps of his backpack. He stood up and stretched, then winced. His tailbone was definitely bruised. Not-Adam was still treading earth nearby, which made him feel a little unsteady on his feet. He took a knee to steady himself. It was odd watching the way he moved through the earth. Like the solid ground was fluid, but only in close contact with the boys skin. It seemed to swirl and eddy as his arms passed through it, but then instantly reverted to how it was. It made his eyes go funny watching the transition, so he stopped. At least the sense of standing on a waterbed had passed. He wondered if, like a swimmer in deep water without a ladder to climb, the boy would need help to get out of the ground, with nothing solid to hold on to. Would he need a towel after?

Gerald decided he would ask. Something like... need a hand? No... that was too casual. Maybe: Hello there, I was wondering if you require assistance? Absolutely not, what is wrong with you? You'd think you never talked to people before!

Ugh. Talking to people is hard. Okay, imagine if he was Adam. What would you say? Adam! What are you doing down there?! You're going to get your clothes all dirty and mom will be mad! This started him chuckling again and he decided to just go for it. What the hell right? Wonderland. Be yourself.

"Ahoy there! Need help to come ashore? Seems like you've lost your land legs, sailor!"

Immediately, he regretted saying this. What the hell was that? Some kind of stupid joke? He found himself chuckling still, so maybe so. But you shouldn't laugh at your own jokes, he had heard, so he forced himself to stop and look serious. Which felt dumb. But then again, the hell with that. This was camp. Be camp Gerald, not middle school Gerald!

Before the boy could give him an answer, he heard someone come up behind him.

"Hm. Looks like we'll all be dead in two days at this rate. That'll be fun" Then more quietly but still audible "Dibs on suicide."

Heh. Sounds like the sort of joke I contemplate, but never dare to say out loud, he thought. He half turned on his knee to size up the new arrival. Older. Taller. (Was he the youngest camper here?! Did mom even check the recommended ages for this camp?!) More than that though, there was a distinct sense about the boy that he wasn't joking at all. So, uh... that was terrifying. Fear loosened his tongue and he babbled whatever was rattling round his brain before he could stop himself.

"Um. Hi there! Gerald. I- uh. Oh!" he hooked his thumb back over his shoulder to indicate not-Adam. "So, one of our fellow campers fell into deep end of the earth and I was just about to try to get him back into the shallow end. Of the earth? Want to help?"

I ain't 'fraid of no ghosts.

Colt sped his car around the walk ways of the camp site, taking turns hard and fast. He drove with no regard for human life. Recklessly, if you will. A furry sped demon. He came up fast on the camp's main campfire and slammed his little foot down on the breaks and came to a sliding to a halt. He climbed out of the RC car that he'd had made custom for himself decades earlier. He walked around to the back of the car and pulled a lighter out of the back, carrying it over to the fire. A tiny ladder was leaning against a series of stacked stones that encircled the fire pit, and inside was wood stacked for a fire that would be lit here soon for the campers to sit around.

He brought the lighter up next to the campfire and placed it on the stone top before walking around the fire pit, making sure there were no tripping hazards or awkwardly placed stones. Honestly there wasn't a lot for Colt to do on the first day, so he was left to do whatever he wanted. He'd spent some time putting the fire together before he'd asked a taller staffer to help him put it together. The last piece was the lighter. Now he was just to wait for Jeb and the others to show up. He sat down on the stone and enjoyed the day.

Saver of the pretty birds

Firmly planted on an aged stump just beyond the treeline, time flowed smoothly around the small, purple capped fungal body of Mungus as he sat simply observing the evolving chaos in the distance, noticing things as they occurred. The steady flow or new arrivals- some interacting with another aspect of Mungus by the deer, the mixture of energies they brought. Mungus observed on… a powerful gust of wind from Andreas passing over sending a small cloud of spores from the avatars cap as his draconic form joined the mixture of bodies at the camp’s entrance.

The hills and valleys beneath which Mungus’ hyphae network stretched were full of a mosaic of activity. Fields of swaying grasses giving way to the succession of trees- sturdy but to the whims of far smaller beings whose livespans were but a blip of time to the woods... But this particular haven of the forest was different, hosting it’s own liveliness unique to the rest of the forest. The life forms it attracted had unwittingly parted wisdom to the elder fungus; time was fickle for a being such as Mungus... his perception of it was warped through his wide berth of his consciousness making it easy for hours, months, and even years to slip by with hardly a notice, easily the passing through of any being- be it an insect, a flower, a person- could become just a blip of time, the wisdoms they carried with them lost. Life was happening all around at each moment, whether it was observed or not. It was up to each individual to make the most of this fact, and chose to live presently in that moment lest it’s teachings be lost to time.

And presently, the mechanical sound of an RC car’s engine whirred into Mungus’ perception. Hmmm. More activity. How great. Today was so busy. The purple cap slowly panned to match the vehicle’s progress, and as it stopped and the small rodent driver hopped out and began the fussing around the campfire. Seeing this, the fungal body slowly crawled off the log and began plodding off towards the campfire, stopping occasionally to look at a bug or accumulate twigs and sticks to contribute to the campfire effort. After a good 30 minutes, the fungal avatar had accrued quite a stockpile of tinder wrapped up in a clump of moss. Satisfied with his work, the small mushroom man slowly dragged his pile to the campfire and began to toss each twig into the firepit, taking the time to stare at each stick and observe it’s subtleties.

Dialectical Hermeticist

Daria is not, as Jeb is no doubt ready to accuse otherwise, late. Her beat-up Ford arrived at least an hour early, so she could dump her luggage in her designated corner of the cabin, read anything on the incoming campers that she could find, and take a quick walk around the woods. Basking in the green-tinted calm of the canopy-filtered light, the smells of moss, wildflower, and sweet subtle decay before a pack of brats give her a migraine.
And have a sneaky cigarette where she couldn't be a bad influence on the kids.

Eventually she stumps over to the welcome centre - her walking stick, helpfully, has little claws carved into the bottom for use in the wild - and looms like an unusually dark crane at the edge of a lake, scanning the thus-far assembled campers. No need to interrupt them yet.

She taps the gnarled head of her cane and braces herself for the month ahead. Coleridge springs to mind, unbidden. and with that the cold echo of Alistair's last moments. She pushes one away.In Xanadu did Kubla Khan,
A stately pleasure dome decree...

Kitty

Adrian Ward
The lack of real response was both disappointing and relieving. On one hand, no ambulance or helicopter would be called. What a shame. On the other hand. it was good no one died. Mushroom guy was probably someone with a strange mushroom power... or become one with the force? What force?

Adrian stared amusedly at Shade-y Guy. Well- he wasn't that shady now that his hood was off. Definitely still shady, though. His skin rippled and shifted as patterns and colours emerged and immediately replaced like a kaleidoscopic nightmare. It started as absorbing, but Adrian had his stomach churning after a while. Scratch shady. Make it trippy. He tore his eyes off Trippy Guy's skin, but his vision immediately swirled. Weird things floated at the edge of his sights like he just stared at the sun for too long.

"...huh?" Trippy Guy just said something to him, but he was only half paying attention. Adrian blinked repeatedly. Focus. Trippy Guy didn't shift like crazy again, so that helped. He realised Trippy Guy was talking about him.
"Oh, no need to worry about that! I'll swim up a tree and jumped off easy." He showed a bright grin at Trippy Guy, but soon faded it off when he saw his clothes laying on his backpack "But uh- if you can handle me a towel for right after I jump off? My clothes fell down."

Well, he wasn't totally naked, but he might as well be. Clothing could only stay on him when he used his power if they were close enough to his skin. That was why Grandma tailored for him a unitard. Since only tight clothes could stay on...
"I have a towel on the second-largest compartment in my bag. I can't really touch anything like this," Adrian swam through his clothes and bag to prove his point. Just like the ground, the objects rippled as he passed through like they were water. Ah, jeez, there was someone close to his age around. And that girl from earlier.

Let's just say he wore black underwear since it looked the most decent. Even then, he was far off from looking decent.

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"...They only just arrived. Not too late to leave a bad lasting impression if you wanted to rush in..."

Ricky was impaled by paroxysms of silent laughter for a moment, which simmered down into a dull chuckle when he caught his breath. He made to plant a friendly smack on Toby's back, but listened to his survival instincts and thought better of it in the last few inches. Instead he drew his hand back, and awkwardly slapped the back of Toby's chair. "Oh ho, man, Tobes my guy! Always got the zingers, dang! Cool guy! I gotta say, man, any impression's a bad impression compared to Andreas there! Man's a legend, wow..."

For a moment Ricky was lost in thought, looking at the man now eating a raw deer leg. "Hey Tobes, did you know bear meat's got all kinda worms and parasites? It's all called tryptophan! Did you know you gotta-"

He was blissfully interrupted by his employer: “Ricky, take the girl and the sign-in sheet and go do a role call. I’m gonna go light the campfire. With any luck, I’ll finally kill Mungus.”

"Oh, uh, yeah sure thing boss man! I think ol' Colt .45 was supposed to be headed out there around... uh, this afternoon?" he glanced at the sun again, winced, and rubbed his eyes. He continued only after Jeb was out of earshot, which wasn't far for Jeb's ancient ears. "Wait, which girl's the girl? Boss which girl- oh man, he's gone. Uhhh, okay! Time to take roll call, time to call some rolls! Tobes, my guy, remind me: you gotta hear about this morning. Crazy story! I'll tell ya later!"

He hobbled down the front steps of the porch, one foot with his walking stick, the other on the same step. One foot with his walking stick, the other on the same step. As he thumped down, his proclamations to the crowd warbled, his voice cracking. The straining of his vocal chords produced a sound rather like Tarzan, if he were trying his best to convey complex instructions in his ululations.

"Okay, campers, let's get ourselves all gathered up! It's time to take a roll call, that's right, a roll call! Y'know what that means, means we can't be having any lone wolves or split packs, a'kay? We're in nature now, muchachos, and we gotta survive in a herd, y'feel me? Gotta huddle!" He reached the table with the sign-in sheet, picked it up, flipped through. After a second he frowned, and looked up. "Hey, Evan, Fallen Evan-gel, my guy, there's uh... there's two of you, good buddy..." he spent a second in contemplation of this fact, then shook his head with his usual goofy grin. "Ah, I'm takin' roll call anyway, that'll all come out in the wash. Okay campers, we got everybody here? IIIIIII'm a-startin'!"

Grinning lethally wide, he took a few jogging steps backwards until he was next to Andreas, nudged him with his elbow, and shouted to the campers in an uncomfortably botched beat rhythm: "I said-uh heeeeeeyyyy Andreas! Are you readytotake, roll-call!?"
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Justice RIDES AGAIN!!!

Debate?! This guy was either a terrible judge of people or had the most deadpan sense of humor Gerald had ever encountered. He'd be impressed if he weren't so creeped out by the utter flatness of his affect. He chuckled, nervously, in an attempt to cover his discomfort. "Talk? Me? Um... not so much? Anyway, I guess I'll take his right hand?"

Then Not-Adam dropped his bombshell.

Gerald's eyes involuntarily flicked towards the girl. His skin turned a slightly darker shade of purple as he realized Not-Adam was basically skinny dipping right in front of her. Awkward. It wasn't like the ground was translucent or anything, but it was the principle of the the thing. Wasn't it? Not-Adam didn't seem especially fussed about it. Maybe Gerald was just projecting his own body shame onto the situation. He wasn't in the habit of being naked in front of anyone even before he manifested, and the last time he had been was for his powers test in front of a Commonwealth doctor. Which had been horrifying. Nudity in front of a stranger was in his personal top ten nightmare scenarios anyway, but examination was somehow even worse for being purely clinical. Being weighed and measured at normal doctors visits as a kid had been bad enough, but having to submit to minute examination of the entirety of his skin? Even thinking of it now, weeks later, brought to the forefront of his mind how horrifyingly alien his body had become. So maybe it was just him. Or maybe it was just being thirteen. The others were older and seemed rather blasé about the whole thing, so he decided he'd better try to play it cool too.

"Oh. Yeah. Towel. Right... I can... um... get that for you... right. Aha!"

Towel retrieved, he looked to the girl again with a slight toss of the head towards the camp which he hoped said:

'Do you mind? I mean, of course we're all adults here, basically, but you know, I mean, he IS naked and all... so... little privacy?'

In point of fact it was a barely noticeable and rather brusque head toss because he was already attempting to spread out the towel with both hands and tucking the middle part under his chin for maximal concealment, which rather limited his range of motion for head tossing. He did however attempt to raise an eyebrow at her for emphasis of his main point. He had not yet mastered the gesture however, and his skin massively overdid the effect. The ridge of flesh where an eyebrow would have been if he had any hair left migrated up and over the top of his head and settled somewhere near the back of his neck. He failed to notice this, instead busily herding Not-Adam towards the nearest tree.

Distantly, he heard an adult speaking in the sort of tone they put on when they are trying to soft pedal some official function by mimicry of what they imagine kids sound like. All he caught was "-role-call."

I guess we are officially late to camp now, so that's a good start, he thought.

Junior Member

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Mentions: Other campers in the area​

"Oh, I'm Danielle. Or Dani I guess. Yeah, I mean I knew this was a camp for supers and all, but a dragon is a little much isn't it?"Danielle replied. She paused, registering the girl's final words. "I...card readings? Do you like I don't know see the future or something?"

Even more staff members were starting to arrive now. None of them seemed quite sane.

Danielle shook her head slightly. She turned her attention back to Cassandra.

"So....do you think this is actually legal or.....?"she whispered. "I most of the counselors seem...you know completely sane."

New Member

Cassandra smiles shyly, tugging on the end of her hair. "Uh... kind of, yeah. It sort of hurts to think about, but yeah." She shrugs, biting her lip. "That's why my parents sent me here. They didn't want to think of the implications. Nice to meet you, Dani."

Her eyes pass over the staff members that are newly arriving, and rolls her eyes. She whispers back, though slightly louder than Danielle would probably like, "Oh sure. I mean, as legal as a place like this gets. Folks here seem like, uh, how to put this... crackpots?" She snorts, tucking her thumbs into the pockets at the front of her jeans, held up by a very tight belt. "But from what I've seen, they're nice enough. Or at least... they try to be, hehe."

Rough Tough Creampuff

Andreas took another hearty bite from his deer leg and set about putting the meat in the freezer as Jeb instructed. His left arm seemed to writhe for a moment before the sleeve faded away. Scales grew rapidly down it's length, and talons that one would say razor-like was too soft a descriptor swiftly extended from what his fingernails. All in all transforming a single arm to this degree only took a matter of a few seconds, but what an interesting few seconds it would be to the uninitiated.

As he reached down with the draconic arm, he picked up one of the bears as the average mom might scoop up a rambunctious child. A short swift movement, and an audibly exhaled huff of air later and voilà! He set the deer leg on the handrail of steps up into the main building, and followed suit with his other arm's transformation. While possible, carrying the bear one armed was deeply uncomfortable. He hauled it inside and put it in the walk in freezer towards the back wall. He repeated this for all but the half deer.

Task complete he stood back outside, leg in hand and happily munching. He eyed the second Blair for a scant moment before writing it off as a double. Body language was all wrong, and it didn't have the....aroma of the real Blair so to speak. Shrugging, he turned to the approaching Ricky who was prepping for roll call. Andreas tried his best to contain his giddiness at the prospect, but failed when Ricky prodded him directly.

With half a mouth of deer meat he loudly exclaimed, "You're damn right, Ricky!" He beamed, not registering the fact his teeth were all intimidatingly sharp and painted with blood at the moment. "Pretty simple stuff everyone. Sure ya dealt with it in school. We'll call off a name and you let us know you're here. Then we can get to eating and more personal introductions at dinner!" He gave the best approximation of a thumbs up possible with his talons. His visible and audible excitement clear to anyone with eyes or ears.

Dialectical Hermeticist

Daria sidles up to the head of the room alongside the other staff and counselors, gracing Ricky and Andreas with something adjacent to a smile.
She's aggressively normal-looking, by comparison, like she's wandering from a college faculty during her off hours. Unlikely anyone will recognize the somewhat notorious heroine Blackout without her costume - and the campers are surely too young.
"Andreas," she murmurs, "I think you have something in your teeth."

Grade-A Jackass

Well, he couldn't be Too mad at him. This kind of lifestyle wasn't for everyone, it wasn't his lack of experience that annoyed Toby. It was his inability. To stop. Talking.

Tobias shook his head as he stood up. He looked over at the commotion of people and thought about walking over. Perhaps introduce himself. Make a small show of to not bother him unless someone is lost. Otherwise they might get shot; you know, the normal, small things.

That was, until looking at the group of people hurled a bad image through his head...
There weren't any telepaths in this group, right..? The last thing he needs is another headcase trying to be a therapist.

Instead of going to talk to the group, he made his way inside."...Gonna start on dinner." Was the only thing he would say, probably only audible to Jeb.

He perused what they had stocked up. At least one person here was reliable. Andreas had not only restocked their supply of meat, but went through the effort to NOT make a mess in the freezer.
Venison it was.

Good thing the group outside was loud. Otherwise they'd hear the cleaver.

#BlackLivesMatter

[DIV=margin:auto; max-width: 450px;][DIV=text-align: justify; font-size:small;]While Ricky went on to handle the initial role call – there was always that one camper who arrived late, sometimes even a few days late, due to a lack of proper parenting these days – Jeb with his stately fat old man pace meandered over to his RV and retrieved a faded red plastic gas can. He sloshed It around, gauging how much precious dinosaur blood was left inside.

The sudden overly excited string of Russian seemed to jolt every other passenger from the bus awake, that is, if they had managed to fall asleep in the first place. Since the moment she had plopped down on her seat, Bijou had been glued to the window and loudly making commentaries on whichever it was that appeared on the other side. Used to the mostly wintery sceneries of Arkhangelsk, even the trees themselves were a new treat to these wonder-filled hyacinth eyes, darting left and right over the greenery with curiosity. The only times that the little girl hadn't been making a ruckus out of things had been while she had been devouring snacks, or that rather short nap somewhere by the middle. A small moment of solace for the rest of the bus-goers before the adorable hurricane had been bouncing on the seat again.
Bee's parents, Illarion and Pazice had been right by her the whole trip, left and front, already resigned to the fact that no one could effectively make the pre-teen silent during an endeavour such as this. That's what the great array of snacks and candy had been for and well, they had barely lasted 30 minutes... Illar made a mental note to bring the triple of provision next time, or maybe just a device of some kind. As much as they'd like to avoid it, it would be for the sake of the other passengers after all.

It was through many attempts to make the girl settle, munched snacks and constant descriptions of the outside that the journey until Winifred Camp had gone. And similarly, as soon as the doors had opened Pazzy had to firmly grasp her child's arm to thwart her plans to cut the line and dash out of sight. 'Wait for her turn'?! How could anybody just sit and watch while an exciting new world stood outside!! Bijou could only pout at the idea, jumping back on the seat with her arms crossed. So sloooooooooow!!! Why couldn't people grab their belongings faster?!

Finally after what had seemed like an eternity, --and yet hadn't actually been that long--, they were allowed to exit into the hallway, the girl bouncing back into her excitement like the flip of a switch, hopping behind her dad. It was impossible not to let out the most amazed 'oooooooooh' ever at seeing all the nature so close for the first time. Well, warm, live nature at least!

"Потрясающие!!" (Potryasayushchiye!!), the girl had let out, arms up high and giving off a little hop.

"What do we do with all of these now?", asked a concerned Illar, "Just leave them where others seem to be gathering?"

Pazice took a glance at her daughter who seemed caught up with feeling the texture of tree bark and couldn't help but let out an amused chuckle, shrugging as if to say 'not like we can help it', "Who knows when she'll come back at this rate."

And thus the first-trip couple had brought their child's luggage near the welcoming desk, dropping them somewhere next to Blair and Evan who looked like proper responsible adults counselours.

While her parents had been making her registration, leaving the baggage and who knows what else adults would in this situation, Bijou had been taking a look around, at the grass and the bugs, even the trees which she had taken upon herself to feel the bark out of. --She concluded that they felt just about the same as Russia's trees, just less colder or wet-- Eventually, her attention had moved on to the actual people, never explicitly joining any of the forming groups on the sheer need of knowing all which was happening. Which, sorta made the little girl want to be in two places at once instead of having to be standing in a middle-ground, observing things from rather far.

In the background, Pazzy and Illar had shouted out a long list of rules and whatnot that didn't really matter or had been memorized at all. Soon the bus had been gone. Good! The adults were out and couldn't bother and hold her back her anymore!! ...Then suddenly someone was yelling in the distance, an older boy, and though English words such as 'dead' made little sense to the little blonde Russian, the clear distress in the tone had hit clear as day. Something was definitely wrong. Bijou's wish for adventure had backfired as time had begun to gradually slow down...

Amidst accelerated heartbeats that still felt and sounded normal, a never-ending string of highly detailed information about either group, either situation would begin pouring in.

A light-haired girl got up from the floor, her facial expression was one of lingering shock and concern, grasping to a stack of cards and focused on the old man with a stick who was contrastingly relaxed. He spoke with a weird accent, which sounded even weirder in slow-mo. A car stopped and from it came a rather tall older boy, silent, thoughtful, even in the ways he walked. The grass crumpled a lot softer under his shoes than usual, hesitancy? The expression was indifferent and unreadable. A boy of texture much like an ever-changing colorful cookie laughed with heartfelt emotion. A bit of an interesting combo of features, what sort of things was he thinking about, she wondered for a brief moment before more things kept being recorded.
A serious-looking man with short hair seemed focused on more than just the immediate world, as if staring into nothing and yet something at the same time. He seemed somewhat annoyed, but it was hard to say for sure since he just looked forever angry at everything. A lady of pretty purple hair and nice clothes had a nice time interaction with a boy of tired expression, then poked a winged and horned man of charismatic aura... And a second just like the first. They seemed to be having fun despite the previously shocked girl nearby. Misunderstanding? Nervous by nature? A moment later there were two of the purple-haired lady instead!

A sharp-toothed girl acted eerie, like an animal ready to pounce. Everything about her body language and expression was a warning to stay away, only friendly at surface level, her eyes evoked no trust. Stoic-boy had then joined purple cookie, looking down at another one that seemed sunk into the ground. How had he gotten there? A hole maybe? Another helped the one that seemed rather out of place and fearful, the one that liked cards, they were nice to each other and that put a smile on Bijou's face. Birds flew ahead, it was becoming night-time, the woods had many interesting sounds and colors, she couldn't wait to really get to explore them.
An adorable little hamster helped make a tiny fire in the middle. It was starting to get warmer, this extra coat was becoming troublesome, hopefully someone could help her take it out later. The little forest gnome with a big hat slowly moved towards the campfire, Bijou wanted to poke it so bad! And old woman joined the circle as well, then a call to gather had echoed out of the old man that also made interesting noises and funnily enough, spoke fast enough that she could still listen to his words without effort. Not understand them though, that would take more than just correcting time.

Eager to join the others and get some interactions going, Bee had tried to move towards the pretty fire too only for her lower body to not follow with the motion the upper part was doing. A little 'Ah!' of surprise had left her mouth and yet gone by too fast for the others to even comprehend that's what it had been, echoing like a tiny random peep. It was as if she had been glued in place by some prank. God's prank, perhaps. Suddenly panicking, time seemed to grow slightly slower than before as the poor girl waved her arms in distress trying to get out of the ground without avail. To the others, it would seem more like Bijou had been imitating a bird and trying to take flight with how frantic and quick the flaying translated into the actual time-flow.

"HEL-BIZUSTUCK!!!", the girl's cry for help had been jumbled together, "NO-MUV!!", someone had forgotten that she needed to speak slower.

The cool dragon man, --she knew they were real, she knew it! Also could apparently become people, cool!!!-- of sticking-up hair had excitedly replied to the fast-speaking man before getting joined by the old lady and all poor Bijou was think about was how much she'd love to be there too. If only she could go anywhere. What a rather harsh start for camp life...

I ain't 'fraid of no ghosts.

Colt was relaxing when he heard someone approaching him. He stood up and moved to see who it was when he saw Mungus! “Hey, look who it is! The fungus among us!” He said in an oddly human sounding voice from his hamster body. He watched Mungus for a moment to see what he was doing before adding, “Thank you so much for helping out, man!” Colt pumped his little arms up like a cheer.

They were very quickly joined by Jeb. “Yessir.” He agreed as he watched Jeb pull the die from his pocket. “Somehow, I’m certain you’ll win no matter what you roll.” Colt said with a laugh. Another odd sounding human thing coming from his animal body. Jeb was a lot of things and a cheat was one. Though no matter how it turned out - Colt wasn’t sure what the next thing he was going to do was.

New Member

The young Iranian boy was in all honesty, very very confused at this current time. Before he got to settle down onto regular classes, he was dragged into a camp trip with people he didn't know onto a location he was completely unfamiliar with... while his spatial awareness was currently on overload and most of his eyes covered by a beanie hat and the main pair behind sunglasses, both things that the teen had started wearing recently. Compared to the rest, he could not even peer out the window, he was too stressed, too anxious, too... paranoid.

Instead of enjoying the trip, most of it was spent keeping himself sane by either playing with his spider silk or knitting... just, anything, ANYTHING to prevent the boy from falling into a pure state of panic and make a scene. It had been painful, mentally exhausting (and not aided by the loud, if endearing foreign child and other noises from fellow campers) and by the time they had arrived Arthur could only sigh in relief.

The teen took his time waiting for the others to get out first... the iranian boy was making sure to stay away from the group as to not be overly stimulated by noises and their presence... he kept knitting, until most of the bus was empty, and only then got out of it carrying his favorite backpack (A plain green school one), and show bags with one carried by each hand containing all he would need for this stay. He was finally smiling a bit despite exhaustion, looking forward to the projects he would be able to progress while here... that was his biggest solace despite it being a strange place. Due to taking his time getting out, he had missed out most of the noise and as such was very oblivious to anything that was going on... his parents were unable to come with him regrettably due to work, so he was even more anxious as a result, which prevented Arthur from even asking for help as to what to do. Instead, the boy chose to stand by a corner of the campsite, close to a tree... putting his luggage on the ground and silently observing without uttering a word, and sometimes trying to use his phone... He had managed to calm down and finally admire the surroundings a bit, the nice trees and birds and bugs that he was so aware of since he got his powers... and finally had started to relax until, a certain pair of events completely snatched his attention away from it.

First, the staff was finally doing the roll call for everyone to come by... that in itself had spiked his anxiety, but he HAD to do it, there was no escaping it. Steeling himself, Arthur had started moving towards the fire and staff finally, that was until... well, the second event happened
A certain... talkative girl who he had noticed had just been standing there had suddenly started waving her arms and... speaking broken english? This had triggered the concern of the boy, letting him finally beat out the overwhelming anxiety he had been suffering, even if for just a moment. He moved towards her after placing his bags carefully on the floor, and... poked her shoulder from behind with his index finger, while looking concern with his feline pupils narrowed from behind his sunglasses.

"Em... are you ok there?" He spoke up with an odd hybrid accent of souther and new yorkian. And even with all the face wear the Iranian teen had on, his frown of concern would still be quite visible through the facial muscles and his lips curled down.

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OOC: Finally got something done! it only took a lot of concentrated effort and nessy's help catching up, bless her xDNecessity4Fun

[DIV=text-align: justify; font-size:medium;]Having asked attendance, Ricky led the group in icebreaker activity after icebreaker activity, each more cringe-inducing than the last for the gathering of teens and pre-teens. Soon, few could help but gain at least a passing familiarity with their fellow campers. As the sun edged closer and closer to the horizon, and the campers' collective hunger started to turn into a tinge of hostility, Ricky decided the campers knew each other well enough. For now. After one last, conclusory call-and-response, he hobbled up the stairs, leading them into the mess hall.

Inside the hall was a wide, musty-smelling space, with four plastic tables and attached benches. Anyone attempting to sit in one might suspect the tight squeeze was deliberately impractical. Two ancient-looking ceiling fans spun like jet engines and wobbled threateningly overhead, and against the back wall was a salad bar, stocked with slimy lettuce and disturbingly soft carrot sticks.

Ricky bade them seat themselves, and ducked into the kitchen to check Tobias's progress on the meat.

Junior Member

Danielle was glad when supper time finally rolled around. The ice breaker activities she didn't mind in and of themselves, but they reminded her a little too much of school when you got a new class. Which made them get old fairly quickly. Especially since after all the stresses of the day she was just wanted to get around to food and bed.

She trailed slowly into the mess hall after Ricky. It did not look like a particularly well-to-do establishment and it smelled. Danielle sighed and chose to sit at the closest right hand table near the wall. The girl was wondering idly about what the bear meat was going to taste like.

Justice RIDES AGAIN!!!

Gerald's head was buzzing. Partly, that was probably the hunger pangs, and perhaps just a touch of heatstroke. But what loomed far larger was the wrenching mental adjustment of the last few hours. First there was the Mungus, the mushroom Jedi Master, who may or may not have triggered some kind of force vision.

Or spore vision?

Either way, a radical new experience, quite outside his educational experiences to date.

Then there was the boy who had swum out of his clothes. Not-not-Adam... Aiden? ...no, Adrian! Too many names, and too many icebreakers! Past a certain point the sheer volume of awkwardly forced social interaction made it harder to keep track of who was who rather than easier. Mr. Rikki-tikki-Tree-Talker seemed nice enough though, just a bit... try-hard? At least he hadn't been mad about them being late for roll call. Power mishaps were perfectly normal and nothing to apologize for he'd said. Or something like that. Yet another facet of how wildly different Camp 'W' was from his previous life.

Powers were normal. No need for shame? Whatever would he do with all his spare mental energy then? It almost sounded too good to be true, except for one final, mind-blowing miracle: not one person had given him a second look since he'd gotten here. Even after he'd let his disguise drop. No reaction at all. Not even so much as studiously avoiding looking at him. It was as if he were just another kid! It was wild. He hadn't even realized until now how thoroughly he had already internalized his identity as a freak. The swiftness of his return to normalcy was positively dizzying.

Now, finally, it was time to eat! Gerald filed into the lodge with the rest of the campers, still trying to get names and faces to stick. Let's see, there was Michael the strangely quiet one... Adrian... Oh, and Drew, the other girl with a bit of Mungus' head.

(That the rest of Mungus had been absconded with by the bully girl, along with the dead deer was a fact his brain still seemed reluctant to cope with.)

Once through the door, he saw that one girl had taken a seat immediately, which struck him as a good idea. Normals or freaks, nobody likes to be the last one left standing. Or to sit alone either, he supposed. He set down his bag beside the table, and squeezed himself into the seat across from her. For a terrifying moment his mind is a blank, but desperation rattles her name out of his brain just in time. A bit of 'clever' commentary rattles out with it.

Grade-A Jackass

Tobias had been hard at work with preparing the meals for every mouth that would be attending this joke of a camp. Unfortunately, he also did not care if any of these yuppies claimed they were vegan. It was eat what he offered or starve. That or forage for something in the woods, but knowing Ricky, there was a good chance they weren't going to learn any USEFUL survival skills. Just the knot-tying skills that end up making them more popular when they're older, and maybe some ways to start fires for the future pyromaniacs out there.

Oh, there was the man in question now. Ricky would most likely notice the multiple plates prepared with what was probably a stark contrast to what would probably be the usual blend of disappointment for everyone involved. If there was any indication that Toby had picked up any sort of skills in the military that didn't involve a gun or hours of travel, it was cooking. Each plate, while uniform in its appearance, sported a hearty amount of meat and starch, comprised of Venison and mashed potatoes- Homemade at that, none of that store-bought shit everyone goes nuts for.
Toby looked over to Ricky, cleaning off various knives and utensils with his usual unamused stare.
"Something you need, Small?"

Bijou had seen the moment a, yet new, older boy had approached from the side, slightly slumped and stepping just as softly as the stoic one. However, they moved completely different, the overall feeling was another. It wasn’t plain hesitancy, a little closer to nervousness? It was hard to tell with the sunglasses, --why was he wearing them near night time?--, eye movements conveyed feelings a lot more clearly… As soon as he had started coming closer, the girl had stopped, leaving her arms still mid-panicked waving. Was that sign of rescue coming or something else?
As excited as the blonde had been at the prospect of being able to leave that spot, there was also the worry that the older kids were all going to be mean to her and her lacking comprehension of their language. She had watched for his body movements very clearly, just in case it changed in a split-second, Bee wouldn’t be able to run away of course, but maaaaybe she could try to block it? Luckily, it had never come to that.

The black-haired boy had slowly, perhaps too much, put his own baggage down on the ground, several blades of grass bent under the weight, ending up squashed… and then, there had been a poke. With the collision of time-flows, time was sped to its usual progression, fast. Suddenly, Bijou saw herself thrown rather violently back into the world’s pace, completely stiff as her brain tried to make sense of the abrupt change.

Eventually, the little Russian would glance around just to be sure, her expression lighting up with extreme delight at the visual confirmation:

"Ah! Bijou saved!!", the little girl had exclaimed, giving off a tiny hop to test whether she could leave the surface or not, then hugging her savior without any sort of warning but the ‘plop’ sound of clothing meeting clothing, "Thank you!!"

The arachnid teen in question was… a bit startled at first, since the girl had suddenly stopped moving altogether… for a very extended moment. This had concerned Arthur greatly, prompting the boy to try to poke the girl in question again while speaking up. that was his intention at least, until she had suddenly turned around and hugged him without warning while thanking him! The Iranian teen was happy, but also very surprised, and without any preparation he was knocked back a bit, causing his sunglasses to come off and hit the floor.

"Ah, be careful!" Now the young man was quite panicked, trying to avoid making eye contact with the girl, slightly out of awkwardness due to not being all that used to physical affection and mostly due to not being comfortable with his current appearance… he was stuck in place regrettably by the hug, only being able to see his sunglasses and not quite able to grab them… all he thought of doing was giving a pat on the head to the girl and ask her to stop or grab the glasses.

"Em…" He was still avoiding eye contact vehemently."Could you please, grab sunglasses?" Arthur also made sure to point at them just in case, since the girl’s accent sounded quite foreign.

The blonde child had blinked once, surprised at the head pat at first as it was coming from a complete stranger, then closing her eyes with a soft chuckle as she enjoyed the gentle motion. Bijou already liked this one! The girl would have stayed there, receiving the gesture of affection for as long as it lasted if it hadn’t been for the new request. Honestly, she hadn’t even noticed the boy telling her to be more careful, all she had heard was the mention of some… glasses? Stakana?
In her confusion, the Russian kid would unlodge her head from the other’s chest to once more glance around, searching for any glass in the vicinity. Apparently there were only the windows… which prompted Bee to tilt her head at him, only then noticing that he was pointing at the ground while also not looking at her for some reason. Shy?

"Oh!", the girl had let out understanding the cue, at last directing her gaze to her feet and finding a familiar object lying down in the grass, "Очки?"(Ochki?), but weren’t these made of plastic though?

Still, there wasn’t anything else around and these were obviously the boy’s, so finally letting go of him, Bijou had proceeded to crouch down on the grass and observe the pair of glasses with attention. ...Wasn’t there a specific way to pick these up? She really couldn’t remember.
After a couple minutes of staring at her own hand and then at the sunglasses continuously, the little blonde gave up trying to recall things and just grabbed them as she thought she should, which, sadly for the owner, meant having her thumb against one of the lenses.

"This?", Bijou had asked, turning around and holding the glasses out to him still from the ground.

Arthur was growing slightly exasperated by this point if also a bit… happy?, seeing that the girl had an even worse understanding of English than he had expected (but also that she was very nice and not mean, which was reassuring)… thankfully, he had pointed to the object and as such words weren’t as necessary… well, that was until the foreign girl had let go of him and instead of immediately grabbing his glasses she just… stared at them, and her hand, for some reason…

"..."
"..."
"..."
This went on for far too long without anything happening, much to the feline boy’s dismay… his exasperation only grew every bigger by the second as he started to hold in his breath, not sure what to do considering she seemed to have limited English knowledge… maybe using his phone to have her translate words would help? And as his mind wandered, the girl finally moved and! … grabbed his sunglasses in one of the worst ways she could have.

"...haaaaa" The Iranian teen almost immediately and unconsciously sighed as he closed his eyes to not let the kid see his different pupils, while extending his hand in her direction and doing a grabbing motion (in which, if he failed to grab the item would try again until the girl helped him grab them) and soon enough bringing them closer to his body, using his shirt to clean the dirtied lens and finally returning the darkening pair of lenses back on their rightful place.
He was a bit exhausted about the whole endeavor, but regardless he was still thankful for her cooperation, the kid was not mean or had ill-will which was nice. He was still a bit awkward, and as such was struggling a bit with how to convey his thanks. Eventually, Arthur had settled for a smile and tilting his head since his eyes were hidden behind the recovered item.

"Thank you" His voice was a bit shaky, but more determined compared to how he had talked before, showing that the boy was making an effort to sound sincere, and soon enough he started pointing at himself while looking in the foreign’s kid direction.

"Me, Arthur" While still pointing to himself with his right hand, he used his left to point to the girl still on the ground, still sounding a bit nervous but trying to push through it."You?" Hopefully this would get the message across well enough, at least that’s what Sabourjian hoped.

Bijou was confused again by how the other reached out to the plastic glasses as if he couldn’t see without them, which was rather weird… These ones weren’t for that! Still, it was the boy’s property and she really had no use for them, so the girl had helped him grab the object, even if with a slight pout of suspicion. Maybe she’d ask about this later, if she could even remember to do so.
With the sunglasses delivered, the Russian child had then gotten back up, literally hopping out of the ground in time to witness the looooong sigh that her new companion had let loose. Bee couldn’t understand the reason for it at all. Had she done something wrong? Apparently not! If the ‘thank you’ had been any indication. Good! The blonde one had beamed with the satisfaction of a job well-done just as the boy had started introducing himself:

"Bijou Illarionevna Yagoda", the girl had recited with an air of pride about it and awaiting the next sentence with excitement, when the supposed ‘roll call’ seemed to start in the background.

Oh no, everyone was doing things without them!

"Aaa goooo!!!!", the Russian had proceeded to drag the newly acquainted Arthur together with her towards the campfire gathering, grabbing at a corner of his jacket like small kids normally do to their parents.

The young man had been ready to respond to the girl’s enthusiasm with an honest smile (for whatever reason, her legitimate enthusiasm and energy was putting the Iranian teen at ease) until… the roll call finally happened. To the boy’s opinion, it had taken too long but more importantly than that, it was starting to stress him out greatly… having to go close to a lot of people would be quite overwhelming to him and was making him anxious.
Before he knew it, Arthur was glued in place, unable to move on his own… that was, until a certain someone, without consulting with him or checking on him, dragged the teen by the corner of his black jacket… before he knew it, Arthur was letting himself be dragged around by Bijou, a little too out of it to protest… but in a corner of his mind popped up an interesting thought, maybe this camp would not be so bad if he was able to make friends with people like this girl… well, that and also the bombardment of anxiety and sensory overload coming from being around a lot of people right now, that, will be hard to deal with, woops, too late to protest by this point.

Hopefully Bijou could stay with him through it to keep the boy from having a panic attack...

The excitement over the gathering had been rather short-lived, sure everyone was close-by, an assortment of interesting people with interesting lives, but nothing could soothe the frustration of broken customs. For starters, name mispronunciation. Why did everyone insist in assuming how to say her name instead of just asking for a demonstration?! Just look at the surname, it's obviously not French! But then this time, Oh, this time it was like it had been done on purpose. Maybe, it HAD been done on purpose, because it started more or less normal before decaying into a huge disappointing irritating mess. As if it hadn't been enough to butcher the name exceptionally, the patronymic had also been skipped through completely...
She had tried to interject to correct the mistakes, after all, the little Russian took great proud of her own name! But then the old man just kept going. Nonstop. Her attempt to add to the roll call was taken as a response and never touched upon again. Defeated, all which was left was for Bijou to sigh with exasperation and close off in a pouty stance, for the remaining duration of the campfire gathering. She also kept shooting petty displeased glances in the direction of the old human-recorder.

Only the mention of food and moving along had been capable of sparkling some joy back, the prospect of not having to deal with the adult anymore being the most alluring one for sure. If the girl didn't have to see this man ever again she'd take it as a victory really. Somehow Bijou doubted she'd be so lucky... Sticking to the back of the line to get as much as of a distance to Ricky as possible, the smell of the new room was very... peculiar. Not one she had met before, and probably one that she was incapable of naming due to lack of vocabulary. Was it, wet? Could smells even be wet??
The blonde didn't know. But what she did know, was that she wanted a table. Rushing before everybody, she had promptly approached a table by the middle, slid into the seat without much struggle and then proudly declared it 'moya!' giving the surface a little satisfied double-handed tap.

And then the Russian child waited, watching attentively for a specific member to show up again, immediately climbing on the seat on her knees to look a bit bigger and frantically waving her arms up when they had:

"ARTHUR!!", Bijou bounced with excitement uncaring for the ruckus she was making, "Arthur! Arthur! Arthur! Arthur! Arthur! ...", and it would keep going for as long as he was still to sit on her table. There was no other option.

The lord of randomness and the warp

Ok so today wasn’t the worst day heck it was actually a lot of fun for Alron at least so many new faces and people to try on so to speak. Now they were getting something to eat in Alron mind he thought it wouldn’t be so bad.. but the smell of the place and the look made him think that whoever ran this joint probably watched too many summer camp movies... probably explained why he would even consider hiring that demon guy... he fitted one of the stereotypes you would see in those movies. So that would mean that the food wasn’t going to be all that good. Alron suspicions where confirmed by the pitiful salad bar grabbing a handful of... whatever vegetable matter was in there and just shoving into his mouth luckily for Alron chewing wasn't all that necessary... maybe he could have a bit more fun with this of course fun meant making someone meet there double always humorous to him. focusing in on a girl that seemed to just be sitting around doing nothing so therefore perfect target once again his sludge mass would shift into an exact copy Danielle approaching from behind her tapping the real Danielle on the shoulder waiting to see her reaction to seeing herself with a bearly contained giggle.

Search up 'heterological.'

Ice breakers were the worst. They were uncomfortable, unnecessary, and awkward.

Uncomfortable and awkward are synonyms.

Whatever.

Michael had already brushed by two people; now he had become an inch shorter, his hair had turned brown, and he was feeling a mix of being a chatterbox and being anxious talking to people. It was a very weird mix. He would be getting rid of that as soon as possible.

He went through a few names that he had memorized. Gerald, Danielle, Alron...Ophelia. That was all the names he remembered, and Michael knew that he would mix them up in the future. His memorization wasn't that good.

Michael had stayed well behind the others, and now, as they headed into the mess hall, he picked a random table, this one with who he thought was Danielle, and the shifty guy Gerald, and sat down with a slightly bored expression.

I ain't 'fraid of no ghosts.

Colton sat on the ledge of a window with a small cushion seat under him. He watched as everyone came into the cantina to have some dinner. He felt sorry for them all. He wouldn’t eat the food here. That being said, he did have his own dinner before him: a small mound of sunflower seeds that Jeb had poured out of a bag of sunflower seeds that he’d bought a day or so earlier. Colt didn’t need much. He’d probably eat half of this and the rest would get put away until tomorrow. He enjoyed his relaxing life.

Reaching out he grabbed one of his seeds and pulled it towards himself, nibbling on the shell itself, enjoying the salted flavor. He watched as the campers came roiling in, making a ruckus and bein’ kids. He yearned for his lost childhood, but marveled at how lively they all were. Maybe one of them would give him candy. He hoped no one was a rough petter. There was a lot he had to put up with as a hamster. Especially when you weren’t allowed to just bite people. Normal folk don’t usually cave to the shouts of vermin.

This could be a fun time. Hopefully nothing terrible would happen to this bunch.